


home is just a room full of my safest sounds

by LostHowl



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, M/M, They're the same age, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, bc im a sucker, esp for harry, esp right at the end, i changed their ages, slightly OOC, this is just stupid fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-22
Updated: 2018-08-22
Packaged: 2019-07-01 05:21:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15767439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LostHowl/pseuds/LostHowl
Summary: Harrison looks at him quizzically. “I.. don’t think I’m very fond of you,”Cisco laughs again, eyes glittering. “Good luck getting rid of me, buddy.”[ Harrisco Hogwarts AU: snippets of their life from first to sixth year. ]





	home is just a room full of my safest sounds

Okay, first of all, Harrison _chooses_ to sit alone on the train to Hogwarts.

He’s in a compartment at the very end of the train, sitting near the window quietly, wrapped up in himself. He can hear the excited chatter outside but has no interest in joining in and increasing the noise level. He looks outside at all the parents waving, at the little siblings watching their older brothers and sisters get on the train, at people with hopeful expressions, wishing the best for whoever they were sending off.

“Hey!” Someone says brightly, entering the compartment. Harrison instinctively sits up a little straighter, and pushes himself further into the corner. “Mind if I take this seat? Everywhere else is full,”

He doesn’t really wait for Harrison to respond, and happily sits down opposite Harrison. “I’m Cisco, by the way, Cisco Ramon! How about you?”

“Harrison,” he responds softly. “Wells. Harrison Wells,”

Harrison learns very quickly that Cisco talks _a lot_. He learns about his friends Caitlin and Barry back home, his big family that tends to be overprotective, his parents that were scared to death when he’d been invited to a magic school, and about his neighbour’s cat that he’s brought along because she likes him more than she does his neighbours.

Cisco chews on a licorice stick when he first asks Harrison about himself. Harrison had refused any candy, shaking his head politely, and was looking at the fraying ends of his sweater’s sleeves when he responded.

“I’m a pureblood,” he says, first and foremost. “My family expects a lot from me, I think,”

“Dude, who cares?” Cisco laughs. “What’s your favourite colour?”

“Huh?”

“Your favourite colour?” Cisco repeats casually. “Favourite books, movies, anything?”

“I-I like blue,” Harrison says, stuttering a little, because he’s never been asked this. “And black, it’s nice. Silver is nice, too,”

“Blue is awesome!” Cisco says excitedly. “I painted my walls blue last year, in my room. The colour is way darker than I thought, but it’s fine, because I like to pretend my room is a part of a spaceship!”

“A space.. ship?” Harrison repeats. He frowns.

“Yeah, like,” Cisco blinks. “A ship in space? I mean, not an actual ship, like a space vessel! How do you not know this?”

Harrison shakes his head, then shrugs a little, then frowns. “How are they in space?”

“Wow,” Cisco says flatly. “You’re an alien.”

Harrison looks at him quizzically. “I.. don’t think I’m very fond of you,”

Cisco laughs again, eyes glittering. “Good luck getting rid of me, buddy.”

The sorting ceremony is a bit of an overwhelming blur. Harrison finds himself alone in the big crowd of students that are led into a big hall with even more students and staff. He shrinks himself down a little, and waits for his name to be called.

“Cisco Ramon!” is called before him, and Cisco excitedly breaks through the crowd and hops up on the big chair. He looks so excited, grinning ear to ear, and Harrison meets his eyes over the shoulders of their peers. Cisco waves at him excitedly.

“That’s Harry,” he tells the hat as it’s placed on his head. Harrison looks away, embarrassed. “We met on the train. He’s kind of quiet, and maybe a little mean, but he’s cool,”

“Ravenclaw!” The hat exclaims quickly, and Cisco runs over to the table that’s cheering when the hat is taken off his head, happily sitting down and introducing himself to the older students. His long hair is all poofy and messed up from the hat, but Cisco makes no move to fix it.

The next name to be called is something-Snart. A young girl with pretty brown hair goes up to the chair, and the hat barely touches her head before calling, “Slytherin!”. She grins and runs down to the green table, sitting down next to a group of the older students that she already seems to be close with.

“Harrison Wells!” Harrison winces softly at how loudly his name is called, and slowly goes up and sits down at the chair. The hat is placed on his head, and it hums in thought. Harrison looks over to the Ravenclaw table, where Cisco is waving at him again, and then the hat declares, “Ravenclaw!”.

When Harrison goes over to the table, he sits down next to Cisco, who grins at him. “I wished you luck, didn’t I? You’re gonna need it,”

 

==

 

Harrison likes to sit by the window at night when he can’t sleep. It’s quiet, and he watches the moon, and the clouds, if they’re there. One time, he saw the stars. It’s a little cold by the window, but he can manage.

Cisco’s cat likes him. She comes up and rubs herself against his legs until he pets her. He’s a little scared because he’s never interacted with a cat before, but she seems friendly and nice. She purrs when Harry scratches her behind her ears.

Sometimes he spends the whole night sitting there, with Cisco’s cat next to him, watching the world go by.

“Hey,” Cisco says quietly. Harrison turns to look at him, and notices his pajamas dragging on the floor as he sits down next to Harrison and scoops up his cat, holding her in his arms. “Can’t sleep?”

Harrison shakes his head. “I’m sorry if I woke you up,”

“Nah,” Cisco shakes his head, smiling. “I couldn’t sleep, either,”

For the first time since Harrison met Cisco, he stays quiet. The only sounds between them are that of his cat, who purrs while Cisco pets her, and then falls asleep on his lap.

“Why can’t you sleep?” Cisco asks softly after placing his cat on his bed, so he can sit cross legged on the windowsill. “Nightmares?”

“I don’t really know,” Harrison says. “I’m just not.. used to it here,”

“Hey, it’s still just the beginning,” Cisco promises him, smiling. “You’ve got a handful more years here, don’t worry,”

And, for some reason, that makes Harrison feel a lot better. He nods slowly, maybe smiling a little, and Cisco grins as he leans back against the wall. He whispers some story to Harrison about Halloween two years ago, when he went with his friends to a haunted house. The moon had been shining the way it is tonight, and they’d been terrified.

When Harrison goes home at the end of the year, his mother asks if he’s made any friends. He walks next to her, thinking of Cisco, and smiles to himself.

“Something like that,”

 

==

 

Cisco likes Quidditch. Harrison doesn’t.

Cisco also turns out to be the only second year from Ravenclaw who makes the team. He likes to talk about it, like he does most things, and will go on and on for a long period of time about how much fun it is, how cool the older students are, and how exciting it is to be a wizard. Cisco, Harrison’s noticed, _loves_ being a wizard.

Harrison doesn’t really get it. He guesses it has to do with family, since he comes from an all-wizard family while Cisco comes from a muggle one, but being a wizard and practising magic hasn’t ever been exceedingly exciting for Harrison.

He sits in the stands, sometimes, and watches Cisco fly around on his broom. Cisco looks at peace in the sky, the wind running through his long hair, and he always sticks one arm in the air and waves at Harrison whenever he catches him looking.

Harrison likes to bring his homework there. While he’s filling in his notes for Potions, Cisco does tricks on his broom that’ll hurt if he does wrong. When Cisco calls for Harrison to look at what he’s doing, he does.

They walk back together, Harrison holding his books in his arms as Cisco tells him things about his upcoming matches and his team. One of the seniors, Linda Park, was helping him learn a really cool trick. That’s all he tells Harrison, because “I don’t wanna spoil it! It’s gonna be so cool, I can’t wait to show you!”.

 _You_ , specifically. Not, _I can’t wait to do it,_ or _I can’t wait to master it_. You, specifically. He wants to show Harrison specifically. Harrison feels warm in the chest at that, and although he’d usually remain quiet instead of responding to something like this, he nods slowly and says, “I’m looking forward to it.”.

The grin that Cisco gives him is blinding.

As it turns out, Cisco’s ready to show off his new trick at the next match against Slytherin. Harrison recognizes some people from the team - Leonard Snart, Mick Rory, Mark Mardon, and Leonard’s younger sister, Lisa - but most of the faces are new to him. The game starts and Harrison finds it a bit hard to focus.

He knows Cisco is a seeker, but that doesn’t help at all, not when there’s people flying left and right and up and down and he can’t tell who’s who and what’s what. He can hear loud cheering every time a ball goes through one of the big circles, but he doesn’t really get it.

It’s in the last minutes of the match when Cisco calls his name while flying by. People look over at him in confusion, but he just avoids their eyes. Cisco waves at him, probably about to do The Thing (that’s what they’ve been calling it).

When he’s neck-and-neck with the Slytherin seeker, chasing the snitch, Harrison holds his breath. He finds himself standing instead of sitting, and leans forward to keep his eyes on Cisco.

People are screaming names, screaming cheers, screaming the score, the commentary is getting drowned out by points ringing and sounds echoing and then Cisco does it, he shifts his weight to his hands and pushes himself up, standing on his broom, arms out at his sides for balance.

Harrison gasps. A grin slowly finds its way onto Cisco’s face as he finds his balance, standing as he flies, and the Ravenclaw stand explodes in cheers of Cisco’s name. He leans forward, hand stretching forward for the snitch, almost reaching it, almost, almost, until it drops.

Cisco’s concentration breaks, and he falters.

Harrison reaches for his wand without realizing, mind scrambling for the right words as he watches Cisco lose his balance and fall backwards.

“ _Arresto Momentum!_ ” He barely recognizes his own voice as Cisco freezes mid-air. It’s suddenly quiet, so quiet, and Cisco’s hanging upside down, looking at Harrison with wide eyes. The game stops for a minute.

“Harry, drop me!” Cisco calls loudly, looking down.

Harrison blinks. What the f-

“Drop me!” Cisco says, more urgently, and Harrison, in a moment of confusion, does. Cisco falls straight down, hands stretched downwards, and hits the ground with a _thump._ Harrison winces.

Cisco sits up, groaning, barely pushing himself up, before choking out, “I caught it,”. The commentator gasps into the mic as Cisco holds up his hand, holding the snitch even as it tries to fly out of his grip. Harrison breathes out a laugh, collapsing back onto his seat.

“Ravenclaw wins!” Comes the resonating declaration, followed by an explosion of cheers and cries. Cisco gives Harrison a very weak, very painful looking grin that reads _thank you_ . Thank you for trusting me, for saving me, for being there, for everything. Harrison smiles back at him as a _you’re welcome._ You’re welcome for being here, for saving you, for having your back, for everything.

 

==

 

“It says that you have the coolest friend ever,” Cisco says, looking over at Harrison from their table in Divination class. Harrison raises his eyebrows. He’s known they’re friends, of course, but neither of them have really said it so vocally until now. “And that your friend has amazing hair,”

“I don’t think the leaves say that,” Harrison says, frowning. He looks down into the cup he’s holding. “Mine say that your friend is going to hit you with a stick if you ever wake him up by throwing water at him again,”

Cisco snickers at that, thinking back to the day before, when Harrison wasn’t awake when he usually was, so he’d splashed water on his face to wake him up. Harrison thinks back to the same memory, although his face is a lot more bitter than Cisco’s is.

“Really?” Cisco leans over to see the cup in Harrison’s hands. “Nah, they say that I’m amazing and that I’m gonna be the coolest wizard ever,”

“Sure,” Harrison says, placing the cup on the table between them.

“ _Wow,_ rude, have some faith!”

“Easier said than done,”

“Asshole,” Cisco mutters.

“Mister Ramon!” The professor calls sharply, and he winces. Harrison stifles a chuckle as Cisco apologizes, and gives him an innocent shrug when he looks back.

 

==

 

The idea to invite Harrison over during the summer after their third year had been Cisco’s mothers’. She’d been listening to her son ramble on and on about _Harry_ , and _my friend, Harry,_ and _did I tell you the time Harry…_ and _oh, once Harry and I…_

“Why don’t you bring him over?” She asks, interrupting one of the four hundred stories he’s already told her. “Do you know where he stays?”

“Nope,” Cisco says, popping the p. “Harry doesn’t like talking about his home, but I can ask!”

“Go do that, okay?” She smiles at her son. “I’ll make dinner,”

“M’kay!” Cisco says, skipping down to his room and flopping onto his bed, reaching for his phone. He dials the number Harry had given him a few months ago and waits one ring, two rings, and the line clicks on the third one.

“Hello?” Harrison’s voice comes through the phone. “Wells estate, Harrison speaking,”

“Harry, hi, it’s Cisco!” Cisco says. “You guys have an estate and everything? That’s so cool!”

“Oh, Ramon, hi,” Harrison says, and Cisco hears some shuffling. “What- uh, how are you?”

“Great!” Cisco chirps. “So, listen, my mom and I were talking, and she was wondering if you could come over for a while? Like, I dunno, a few days?”

“Really?” Harrison asks, sounding a little shocked, but it’s hard to tell over the phone. Cisco nods before realizing that Harrison can’t see him.

“Yeah, is that cool?” he asks, looking up at his Han Solo poster.

“I think so,” Harrison says, and Cisco can clearly tell that he’s happy. “When can I come?”

“Uh, hold on,” Cisco says, and pokes his head out of his room’s door. “Mom! When can Harry come over?”

“Dante’s coming home on Friday, so any day after that!” his mom calls back. Cisco pulls a face and pulls his face back into his room, returning to the call.

“Mom says anytime after Friday is fine,” he says to Harry, looking at his calendar and frowning because that’s three days away and he misses Harry.

“Okay,” Harry says quickly. “How long can I stay?”

“As long as you want, man, we’re not gonna kick you out,” Cisco laughs, and Harrison remains silent for a few seconds. “Hello? Harry?”

“I-I’ll be there,” Harrison says quickly. “Are you sure it’s okay?”

“Yeah, duh,” Cisco grins. “You can meet all my friends here! Well, actually, there’s only two, but-”

“Barry and Caitlin,” Harrison says, cutting him off. He then adds, softly, “I remember,”.

“See you Saturday?” Cisco asks.

“Saturday,” Harrison says, and then the line clicks.

 

==

 

“Hey, Harry!” Cisco grins as he pulls the front door open. Harrison is outside, looking a mix of nervous, excited, maybe a little scared? His shoulders fall a little in relief when Cisco grins at him and steps aside for him to come inside.

“Hello,” Harrison says softly after coming inside, an airbag slung over one of his shoulders. Harrison takes his shoes off while Cisco closes the door.

“Mom, Harry’s here!” Cisco calls, leading Harrison inside. Cisco’s mother comes from the kitchen and hugs Harrison without a moment's hesitation. Harrison hesitates, and throws Cisco a scared look from over her shoulder. Cisco snickers and mouths ‘hug her back’. Right when Harry puts his hands on her back, she pulls back.

“It’s so lovely to meet you,” she smiles warmly at him. “I’m Cisco’s mother.”

“I’m- I’m Harrison Wells,” he says quickly. “It’s nice to meet you,”

“Harrison, is it?” She laughs. “Cisco’s been calling you Harry for so long, I just thought that was your name,”

“It’s okay,” he says, shaking his head, then nodding. “If you want to- you can call me Harry, if you’d like,”

Cisco’s mother looks at her son and then back at Harrison, looking like she’s confused about how someone like Harrison got caught up with someone like Cisco.

“Well,” she claps her hands. “Cisco, why don’t you let Harry rest for a while, and then maybe you can meet Barry and Caitlin? I’m still making dinner,”

Harrison nods, while Cisco grins brightly and jumps in excitement. “You’re gonna love Barry and Cait, they’re the best! My room’s upstairs, come on!”

Harrison follows Cisco up the stairs, one hand on the railing and the other on the strap of his bag. Cisco’s telling him something about Barry excitedly, _he made the track team on his school, which is awesome! He’s such a good runner!,_ and Harrison looks at the pictures on the walls.

“And this-” Cisco declares while opening his door. “is my room!”

Cisco’s room, somehow, is a perfect reflection of him. It’s messy, but there’s order in the chaos - Harrison can tell that Cisco probably never has trouble finding anything in his room when he needs to. There are pictures all over the wall, pinned and taped, posters tearing at the edges, notebooks and books lying all over the bed and floor. It feels like home.

“You can leave your stuff anywhere,” Cisco says, flopping onto his bed. “I can roll out an extra mattress if you want, or we could just sleep together,”

“Either way is fine,” Harrison says quickly, leaving his bag by the door. “I like your room,”

“Thanks!” Cisco grins as Harrison sits down on his bed, looking up at the glow-in-the-dark stickers on the ceiling. “Oh, those are super old. Some of them still glow,”

“They glow?” Harrison asks in surprise. “Are they magic?”

Cisco snickers. “No, man, they’re just cool,”

Harrison turns back to them in awe. “How do they glow?”

“They do at night, when it’s super dark,” Cisco says. “You’ll see ‘em tonight,”

Harrison looks inexcusably excited. Cisco’s blood lights on fire and he jumps into a sitting position suddenly.

“I wanna show you something else, too! Tonight, I mean. It’s my favourite part of the house,” he says. Harrison nods before Cisco finishes what he’s saying.

“Okay,” he says. “Sure,”

“Awesome!”

That night, Harrison learns that muggle stickers glow in the dark without any magic. It fascinates him beyond belief, how they glow bright green in the darkness, and Cisco laughs softly from next to him on the bed.

“Come on, I’ll show you my favourite part,” Cisco whispers, slowly climbing out of bed. He pushes his window open as Harrison follows him, and then carefully climbs out.

“Ramon!” Harrison hisses. “What are you doing?!”

“Shh!” Cisco says quickly. “Just trust me,”

Harrison feels scared. Cisco offers him his hand, whispers, “trust me, okay?”, and Harrison feels something loosen in his chest. He takes Cisco’s hand, holding it tightly as he climbs out of the window. There’s a small ledge to hold onto, and Cisco goes first to help Harrison get onto the roof.

“Put your foot on the- yeah,” Cisco says, stretching his hand down. Harrison reaches for it, pulling himself up onto the roof. “See! Was it that hard?”

“Yes,” Harrison says without skipping a beat. Cisco rolls his eyes and points up. When Harrison looks, his breath gets knocked out of his lungs as if he’s been punched.

“Merlin’s beard,” he whispers, looking up at the sky that’s littered with stars. “It’s beautiful,"

“Right?” Cisco says happily. “I bought this star map to find constellations, and I’ve found nine so far!”

Harrison doesn’t respond. He looks up at the stars, fascinated by the endless numbers of stars that he sees.

“I can only see Orion from my window,” Harrison says without meaning to. “Sometimes. I’ve never seen so many stars,”

“You should show me Orion,” Cisco says. “Y’know, when I come over!”

Harrison turns to Cisco with a frown.

“You want to come over?”

“Duh!” Cisco grins. “I bet your room is, like, totally black and white. And super clean, all the time. You must have, like, three bookshelves, right?”

Harrison blinks. “Two,”

“So close!” Cisco laughs. “Oh, let me guess: your desk is white, black chair- oh, wait, maybe a glass desk? No, definitely white. White sheets? I bet your walls are grey,”

“White desk, black chair, grey walls,” Harrison agrees. “My sheets are white and grey,”

“Do you have _any_ colour in your room?”

“No,” Harrison admits. “I like black and white,”

“Please tell me you don’t paint your book covers black and white to match,” Cisco teases.

“No, I-” Harrison hesitates. “They’re charmed,”

Cisco laughs much louder than he should in the middle of the night, but Harrison makes no move to quiet him. He turns back to the sky, looking at the white stars glowing against the dark canvas of the sky. It looks too beautiful to be real.

“It’s real,” Cisco promises, and Harrison realizes that he’s said that out loud. “Hey, tell me more about your house,”

“It’s.. big,” Harrison says hesitantly. “There’s a big courtyard out front with lots of flowers. The front gate is really old, but it looks nice, actually,”

“Does it have, like, vines creeping on the building? Do you live in a creepy mansion?” Cisco asks, then gasps. “Are you a family of vampires?”

“No!” Harrison says immediately, and Cisco laughs. “There’s a lot of people at home. There’s me, my brother, my brother’s wife, my parents, my grandparents from both sides, two aunts and uncles, and three cousins,”

Cisco stares at him with wide eyes.

“You have a brother?”

“Huh?” Harrison blinks. _That’s_ what surprised Cisco? “Oh, yeah. His name is H.R.,”

“How come you never told me? Is he like you? Oh, wait, is he totally different? I bet he’s totally different and people always wonder how you’re related,” Cisco guesses rapidly, eyes glittering.

“Yes, actually,” Harrison admits in surprise. “How did you know that?”

“I’m good at guessing!” Cisco grins. “Tell me more about your whole family!”

Harrison waits a moment, soaking in Cisco’s grin and curiosity. Harrison doesn’t know if anyone in his life has ever been so interested in him, his family, and his home. He smiles softly and nods, and then starts talking.

 

==

 

“Right, and then, she was like, ‘Cisco, you’re not allowed to do that! You broke four ribs last time!’ and I was like, ‘yeah, but we still won the match!’” Cisco rambles to Harrison while plucking all sorts of candies off the shelves at Honeydukes. “Anyway, Linda won’t teach me anything new,”

“I think that’s fair,” Harrison admits, looking gingerly at a chocolate frog display. “You were hurt badly last time,”

“Yeah, but it was awesome!” Cisco argues. “Plus, you were super worried and it was super cute,”

“I-” Harrison pauses. “Excuse me?”

“Yeah,” Cisco shrugs, dumping everything in his arms in front of the cashier. It ends up costing everything from both of his pockets, and Cisco adamantly refuses to let Harrison pay for anything.

“I’m gonna try and ask her again at practise tomorrow,” Cisco says as they leave Honeydukes, Harrison carrying half of the candy in his arms. “I mean, it’d be cool to beat Slytherin again! We’ve consistently lost ever since two years ago, which sucks,”

“I think you’ll be fine,” Harrison says, bumping his shoulder against Cisco’s. “You’re good at Quidditch,”

“You think so?” Cisco grins, bumping back into Harrison. They go back and forth while walking back to Hogwarts, Cisco’s laugh echoing. Harrison stifles a chuckle when Cisco drops a chocolate frog and, while leaning down to pick it up, drops everything else in his arms.

“Harry, you’re so lucky you have long limbs,” Cisco says while Harrison helps him pick all the candy up. “You can carry so much! I’m stuck with small arms,”

“You’re not small, you’re just..” Harrison trails off, thinking of the right word. “Compressed,”

“ _Compressed?_ ” Cisco repeats, eyebrows shooting up. Harrison blinks once, twice, then nods as they both stand up again. Cisco cracks up, laughing so hard he almost drops all the candy again. “That’s what you came up with?”

Harrison flushes in embarrassment, looking away. “Shut up,”

Cisco doesn’t stop laughing because he can’t, and he cackles all the way back to Hogwarts, collapsing onto his bed in a fit of giggles. Harrison gives him an unimpressed look, releasing all the candy in his arms on top of Cisco. Cisco yelps in protest, covered in candies.

Harrison sits on his own bed after taking his shoes off, looking over at Cisco as he sits up and pushes all the candy to one side of his bed.

“Hey, Harry, how come you don’t like flying?” Cisco asks after he’s done, sitting cross legged. “You’d be great at Quidditch!”

“It’s..” Harrison pauses. “It makes me uncomfortable. I don’t like being suspended in the air, with no sense of balance or support,”

“Huh,” Cisco blinks. “So, you’re scared,”

Harrison wants to say _no, I’m not,_ that it’s not about fear, it’s about comfort, that he isn’t scared of flying, but he is. He nods slowly.

“M’kay!” Cisco says, biting into a piece of chocolate. “Want some?”

Harrison blinks. “No, I’m okay,”

“You don’t like sweets, huh?”

“Not really,”

“I knew it!” Cisco grins, then tosses Harrison a small box. “Here, it’s coffee flavoured. I thought you’d like it,”

“You didn’t have to,” Harrison says, looking down at the box fondly. “Thank you,”

“Hey, come on,” Cisco rolls his eyes harmlessly. “We’re friends! That means no ‘sorry’s and no ‘thank you’s,”

“That’s a rubbish policy,” Harrison frowns. “What if I hurt you? Or save your life?”

“Nah, it’s cool,” Cisco shrugs, finishing his chocolate. “I mean, come on, how bad could you hurt me?”

“I broke four of your ribs,” Harrison says flatly.

“I told you to drop me,” Cisco counters. “Let it go!” Then he snickers at his unintentional pun, and Harison sighs.

“Okay, no ‘sorry’s and no ‘thank you’s,” he gives in, and Cisco sends him a bright smile. “I still think it’s awful,” 

“No take-backs!”

 

==

 

“Hey, hey, hey,” Cisco whispers to Harrison in herbology. “Are you stressed about the O.W.L.s?”

“Not really,” Harrison admits. Pressure is a part of his daily life because he’s a pureblood, and his family’s expectations have been in outer space since day one. “Why?”

“Because I’m _freaking out_ ,” Cisco says urgently. “No one in my family has ever done them before, and I’m the first wizard and I can’t handle all the stress,”

“You’re going to be fine, Ramon,” Harrison says, frowning and looking over at his friend. “You do well in your classes, you don’t have to worry,”

“Can you help me study? Please, please, please?” Cisco whispers, and Harrison nods on instinct. “Thank you, I love you so much, I owe you a million times,” 

Harrison’s heart stops and he drops his quill. Did Cisco just-

“Mister Wells, Mister Ramon, is there something you’d like to share with everyone?” The professor asks, and they both look up with caught expressions.

“Sorry, Professor,” Harrison chokes out, sounding constricted to even himself, and bends down to pick his quill up. Cisco shakes his head and looks down apologetically, and the professor continues the lesson.

They go to the library after class. There are other students there, some entering and some leaving, but none of them even come to their table. They’ve been deemed a pair by the whole student and staff bodies, so there isn’t any point in approaching them, apparently.

“Okay, so, like, I have no idea what this is about,” Cisco says when they sit down, books out on the table. “Like, what are these careers? I don’t know. I’ve only ever known muggle jobs,”

Harrison nods slowly. “Okay, well.. I don’t really know where to start. Is there a job that stands out to you?”

“Honestly?” Cisco says gingerly. “No,”

“Okay,” Harrison says, shuffling through some papers.

“This was all fun and games until it’s actually my life,” Cisco complains. “Does that make sense? It probably doesn’t. I just kind of thought we’d be here forever, you know?”

“At Hogwarts?”

“Yeah,” Cisco sighs. “I don’t want to let this go. I mean, it’s been five years at this point, and I forgot that it’s going to end, and that we have futures and families and stuff to do beyond the walls of Hogwarts. I kind of wish we could stay here forever. You know, maybe not _here_ here, but.. in this time,” Cisco pauses. “I’m scared,”

Harrison reaches over and holds Cisco’s hand without thinking twice about it. Cisco looks at Harrison in surprise, and relaxes a little when Harrison squeezes his hand.

“Do you remember our first year, when I couldn't sleep because I wasn’t used to it here? I’d sit by the window with your cat,” Harrison says, and Cisco nods with a small smile. “ _You_ helped me get through that. You were there for me then, so.. I’m going to be there for you now.”

Cisco blinks in shock. Harrison hasn’t ever been so vocal, for as long as Cisco’s know him. Cisco nods slowly, squeezing Harrison’s hand back.

“Anything you need, Cisco,” Harrison says after a moment. “I’m here for you,”

Cisco melts into a small smile that Harrison returns before shifting away, sorting through his papers again.

“So,” Cisco says, clearing his throat. “First name, huh?”

“It just- it slipped out,” Harrison shakes his head. “Sorry,”

“Hey, remember what I said?” Cisco raises an eyebrow, and Harrison sighs with a smile.

“No ‘sorry’s and no ‘thank you’s,” he says, nodding, then pauses when he’s about to apologize again.

“Come on, we can get through this,” Cisco says. “You have that list?”

“List,” Harrison echoes blankly before pulling it out. “Yeah, here. And, um.. I can ask my family, if you have any other questions. They’re all wizards, so they know a lot about this stuff,”

“You’re the best, Harry,” Cisco smiles, looking at the list of careers that Harry’s passed over. “Thanks,”

It takes Harrison a moment, then he shoots Cisco a quizzical look.

“You’re not allowed to say that, remember?” He says, sounding pleased with himself because of how caught Cisco looks.

“Right,” Cisco pauses. “I love you?"

“Just look at the list, Ramon,”

“Ramon?” Cisco asks. Harrison hesitates.

“Cisco,” he amends. “Look at the list, Cisco,”

When Cisco returns to the list with a pleased expression on his face, Harrison whispers a soft, “I love you, too,”. Either Cisco doesn’t notice the red flush on his face, or he does and doesn’t say anything about it.

 

==

 

“I still have to meet your family, you know,” Cisco says at breakfast while Harrison bites into a piece of bread. Cisco steals his pumpkin juice, and Harrison steals Cisco’s strawberries in retaliation. “Your mom, dad, brother, and everyone,” 

“My mother’s been asking about you, too,” Harrison says, and Cisco’s eyebrows shoot up as he bites into an apple.

“Excuse me?”

“Hm?” Harrison says, blinking. “Yeah, she asked about you in her last letter. I said you were doing well,”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Cisco says. “How does your mom know about me?”

“I’ve talked about you,” Harrison says casually. Cisco blinks his wide eyes. “I’ve _been_ talking about you since our first year,”

“Uh, okay,” Cisco says, absolutely caught off guard. “When were you gonna tell me that?”

“I didn’t think it really mattered,” Harrison admitted, stealing his pumpkin juice back and taking a sip.

“Of course it does! What’ve you told her? Tell me everything!” Cisco says urgently.

“Okay,” Harrison says slowly. “I told her about how we met on the train, about how you told the sorting hat about me-”

“Oh, dude, come on,”

“- I mentioned how you play Quidditch, and the whole incident about your broken ribs-”

“What?!”

“- I told her about all the times we went to Hogsmeade and all the times we studied at the library-”

“Jesus Christ,”

“- and.. I mean, a few more things here and there. I told her about your cat,”

“Seriously, Harry? Your mom knows, like, everything about me, and you didn’t tell me?” Cisco asks accusingly. “How come you tell her all of this? You don’t even talk to me that much!”

“She asks a lot of questions,” Harrison says, sighing. “It’s like being interrogated,”

“Uh-huh,” Cisco sounds unimpressed. “So, can I meet her? Is she gonna come to pick you up at the end of the year?”

“Nope,” Harrison says, finishing his breakfast. “She hasn’t since my second year,”

“Your dad?”

Harrison shakes his head.

“Brother?”

He shakes his head again.

“Uncle, aunt, cousins?”

“I go home alone, Cisco,” Harrison says, frowning. “We have a car,”

“A-” Cisco cuts himself off. “A car?”

“Yes,”

“Like, a- a normal car?” He asks. “A muggle car?”

“Heavens, no,” Harrison says, scoffing. “It’s a magic car. It can fly, and turn invisible, and everything,”

“Yeah, that makes more sense,” Cisco admits. “But back to the more important topic!”

Harrison’s known Cisco long enough to know exactly what he’s about to ask him.

“Okay, I’ll ask my mother if she can come pick me up so you can meet her,” he fills in without waiting for a question, and Cisco grins brightly.

 

==

 

“You must be Cisco!” Harrison’s mother says as Harrison leads Cisco to her. Cisco smiles and nods, clearing his throat slightly. Harrison’s mother is a perfect replica of how he’d imagined she’d be. She’s tall and regal, she holds herself with pride and dignity, and her smile holds a million secrets.

“Hello, mother,” Harrison says. She kisses Harrison’s forehead and then Cisco’s, and Cisco makes a small squeaking sound.

“It’s so lovely to meet you. Thank you for always keeping Harrison company,” she says, and Cisco feels unnecessarily uneasy as he smiles and nods. Harrison senses it clearly, and steps closer to Cisco.

“Yeah, uh, Harrison’s great,” he chokes out, and Harrison gives him a weird look before turning back to his own mother.

“Harrison’s told me so much! How are you? How are studies, and Quidditch?”

“Great,” Cisco says, nodding. “Everything’s great; I’m great, it’s all great. How about-”

“Oh, tell me more about Ravenclaw, would you? I was a Slytherin myself, so I’m not very familiar with the house. What’s the common room like?” She cuts him off, and Cisco immediately understands what Harrison had meant by interrogation.

“It’s.. big,” he says stupidly, wincing at himself. “It’s nice, I mean, it’s like home,”

“Of course,” She smiles, and Cisco nearly faints. It makes so much sense that she was a Slytherin. Her skin is so cold when she presses it to Cisco’s face. “It was lovely meeting you, Cisco. Harrison, shall we?”

“In a moment,” Harrison nods. “Could you go ahead to the car? I just need to tell Cisco something,”

“Of course,” she takes Harrison’s owl and goes ahead, and Cisco lets out a breath and staggers.

“I told you,” Harrison says, catching Cisco so he won’t fall. “Are you okay?”

“Great,” Cisco says weakly. “How does she do that?”

“Who knows,” Harrison mutters. “What’s with ‘Harrison’ all of a sudden?”

“I thought she might stab me if I called you ‘Harry’,” Cisco admits. “Uh, no offence,”

“None taken, trust me,” Harrison laughs a little. “Look, you don’t have to see her again, I promise,"

“Oh, thank god,” Cisco breathes out. “Dude, I love you, but I honestly can’t-”

“I know,” Harrison says, letting Cisco lean on him. “I should go,”

“Yeah,” Cisco says, standing straight. “Bye. Next year?”

“Next year,” Harrison nods, and takes his trunk. He’s about to walk when he pauses and turns back to Cisco. “And.. for the record,”

“Huh?” Cisco blinks.

“The only person who’s allowed to call me ‘Harry’ is you, so,” Harrison clears his throat, face feeling warm. “Don’t call me ‘Harrison’,”

Cisco nearly passes out.

 

==

 

The entire castle is buzzing with the excitement of the Yule Ball. There are dresses and robes coming in the mail everyday, and people are asking each other to go in every free second. Leonard Snart visibly castrates anyone who asks his sister.

“This thing isn’t compulsary, is it?” Cisco asks, chewing on a licorice stick. He’s reading over his notes for Charms on his bed, Harrison sitting on the floor next to his bed.

“Nothing’s compulsory if you’re good enough at hiding,” Harrison says, then pauses. “Merlin, you’re such a bad influence. Look at me, I’ve become you,”

Cisco snickers and throws a crumpled paper at the back of Harrison’s head. “Shut up, Harry. Are you going?”

“My family wants me to,” Harrison says, blindly throwing the crumpled paper back. Cisco catches it before it hits his shoulder. “Mother said she’s sending robes,”

“I can’t wait to see you all dressed up,” Cisco says, laughing. “It’s gonna be so funny. I need, like, a million pictures minimum!”

“Good luck with that,” Harrison says. “I’m avoiding you all night, then,”

“What? No! That’s cheating!”

Cisco finds Harrison sitting in the common room, dressed in his robes, an hour before the ball starts. He’s reading a book, a blanket under him as he shuffles closer to the fire. He wants to make a snarky comment about how he looks, but he actually looks really good. Cisco realizes that he probably doesn't have the most heterosexual reaction and clicks his jaw shut quickly.

“A package came in for you earlier,” Harrison says without looking up from the book. “I left it on your bed,”

“Oh,” Cisco says. “Okay, thanks,”

“Sure,” Harrison says, flipping a page. Cisco hurries into the room, sighing to himself after the door closes. He turns to his bed and finds a bundle wrapped in light brown paper with a note stuck on top.

 

_I hope you’re good at dancing._

_-Harry_

 

He frowns, opening the package. He gasps softly, and then smiles at the robes inside. They’re dark and soft, and probably perfectly his size, and he pulls them out and laughs softly. (But then he remembers that he can’t dance, and he panics a little). 

When he comes back down, Harrison isn’t there. He finds himself going down to the Ball, heart pounding, a little terrified, and turns the corner only after he sees that no one is there.

“You look great!” A voice from his left says, and he screams in shock. Turning abruptly, he sees a painting that looks slightly terrified at his scream.

“I’m so sorry,” he gasps. “I just- wow, sorry, didn’t mean to,”

“You still look great!” The painting says, giving him a thumbs up. He returns it with a shaky smile, and turns to descend the stairs into the hall.

“Cisco,” Harrison says, and Cisco screams again, nearly falling down the stairs.

“ _Jesus fuc-”_ he stops himself, one hand over his chest. “Oh my god,”

“Are you okay?” Harrison asks, trying not to laugh. Cisco looks at him gingerly, contemplating the question.

“If I knew,” Cisco says. “I’d tell you,”

“I see the robes fit,” Harrison says, and Cisco looks at him for a moment, confused, then nods.

“Huh? Oh, yeah, they- they’re really nice,” he says quickly. “Than-”

Harrison covers his mouth with a finger. The ‘no ‘sorry’s and no ‘thank you’s’ rule was really coming back to bite Cisco in the ass.

“Instead of saying that,” Harrison moves his hand, holding it out to Cisco instead. “Would you like to dance?”

“I would,” Cisco says, sounding softer than he wants to. “But I don’t know how to,”

“Trust me, okay?” Harrison says, and Cisco smiles slowly, nodding and giving Harrison his hand. They hold hands tightly, going down the stairs, and Harrison leads Cisco to where everyone else is dancing.

“Okay, so, I really wasn’t joking about not knowing how to dance,” Cisco say as Harry places one of his hands on his shoulder and holds the other, pulling him closer by the waist. Cisco makes a soft, embarrassing sound when he’s pulled close to Harrison, and looks away quickly. “Okay, this works,”

“Just move slowly,” Harrison says, and he’s so, so close, and he can probably feel how fast Cisco’s heart is beating, and wow, _when did this happen?_

“I feel like I’m doing this wrong,” Cisco says, looking down.

“You’re doing fine,” Harrison says. “You look nice,”

“Thanks,” Cisco says, nodding slowly. “You too,”

It’s quiet for a few minutes, and they move slowly, back and forth, listening to the music playing, when Cisco decides to speak again.

“I thought you were going to be avoiding me,” he says, and Harrison laughs.

“I’ve been trying to avoid you since the first day we met on the train,” he says. “Look how that worked out,”

Cisco laughs despite himself. “Yeah, you were all small and scared back then,”

“And now?”

“Less small,” Cisco says. “And less scared,”

They both laugh at that, and then the music stops. Everyone breaks away to take a break, and Cisco takes a step back.

“So, this was nice,” he says. “Very nice, thanks again for the robes,”

“Thank you for dancing with me,” Harrison says purely because Cisco just said ‘thank you’, too.

“Look, I need to tell you something, but you can’t freak out,” Cisco says rapidly, and Harrison nods slowly, a little puzzled. Then Cisco blurts out, “I like you,”

Harrison stares blankly, and Cisco holds his breath until he thinks he’s turning blue.

“I’m going to do something,” Harrison says. “And you can’t freak out,”

Cisco nods, and he doesn’t trust himself with his words, and then Harrison kisses him and _wow, is that what it feels like to have fireworks in your chest?_. He can feel Harrison’s hands coming up to hold his face, and he reaches out shakily to hold onto Harrison’s robes, shaking from head to toe. Harrison pulls away after a moment, and whispers, “you’re freaking out,”.

“Yeah, I’m freaking out,” Cisco admits, laughing. “Sorry,”

“You broke both your rules,” Harrison says, sighing in mock disappointment. “Can I break one, then?”

 _You already did_ , Cisco thinks, but instead of saying that, he nods.

“I love you,” he says. Cisco makes a choking sound.

“That wasn’t in the rules,” he manages to say, and Harrison considers that.

“Well,” he pauses. “Thank you, then,”

“For what?”

“For sitting with me in the train, for waving at me from the sorting seat, for sitting with me by the window when I couldn’t sleep,” the music’s starting again, and the floor is filling up with more people. “For letting me help you win against Slytherin, for inviting me to your house, for showing me the stars,”

Cisco can’t breathe.

“For always being next to me in every class and every meal, for going to Hogsmeade with me,” Harrison presses their foreheads together. “For always, always being there,”

Cisco takes a shaky breath, his eyes closed. He barely manages to whisper a small, “you’re welcome,”, before Harry kisses him again.

**Author's Note:**

> title is from troye sivan's talk me down
> 
> okay so firstly i feel like i got slightly ooc here and there, so apologies for that. secondly, ive been working on this fic for deadass two months and i finished it on my train ride to ottawa (hello from ottawa!). look, i know ive been mentioning that ive got multiple coldflash fics in the works, and i do, but i just have no motivation to write anymore. my mental health has not been the greatest, and my meds suck, so it's just a cycle of bad. please bear with me as i try to put some stuff out.
> 
> all of that said, kudos and comments are appreciated beyond belief. i love you all <3


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